The Windsor High School wrestling team wrapped up one of its best seasons in school history on March 2-3, sending a pair of athletes to the CIF State Wrestling Championships at Rabobank Arena in Bakersfield.
Representing the Jaguars were 108-pound junior league and NCS champion Blake Fredrickson and 152-pound sophomore teammate Trent Silva.
Fredrickson turned in an outstanding performance in the two-day meet, going 4-3 to take home a sixth-place medal. The outstanding showing was the best among all Redwood Empire wrestlers and is the fourth Windsor athlete to earn a top-eight medal at state.
“Blake went from (placing) fifth in sections last year to sixth in state this year, quite a steep improvement trajectory,” WHS coach Rich Carnation said. “He tied our school record for the highest placement at state for a junior with Perez Emilio Perez, who’s wrestling at Iowa now. That’s pretty rare air.”
In a disappointing end to a great season, Trent Silva was suffering from the flu and was forced to withdraw from the tournament. He finished the year as the NBL and NCS 152-pound champion.
The long road to the CIF State Championships is perhaps the most demanding in high school sports, considering that California is the most populous state in the nation, with just one open division for all athletes and no distinction made for size of school.
Consider the fact that there were more than 27,000 participating athletes on 900 high school teams in California this year, but only one tenth of one percent of all athletes qualified for state. The Windsor High School wrestling team has had at least two state qualifiers each year for the past 12 seasons.
